Boing Boing » climatehttp://boingboing.net
Brain candy for Happy MutantsTue, 03 Mar 2015 23:10:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1The Tory war on science in Canada: a chronologyhttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/the-tory-war-on-science-in-can.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/the-tory-war-on-science-in-can.html#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 19:51:39 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=366717Nine years of cuts; muzzlings; bad science, retaliatory firings, burned libraries, layoffs, closed investigations, censorship, withdrawal from international accords; scaremongering about foreign extremists; cancelled environmental assessments; weakening environmental laws; axing and privatizing watchdogs; denying climate change; spying; smear campaigns; oil subsidies; declaring endangered species to be not endangered; human rights violations; drug war hysteria; forest decline; coverups of defective drugs; corporate access to government; global tar sand lobbying; retaliatory tax-audits against environmental groups; and disaster after disaster after disaster. Ladies and gentlemen, the Conservative Government of Canada.]]>Nine years of cuts; muzzlings; bad science, retaliatory firings, burned libraries, layoffs, closed investigations, censorship, withdrawal from international accords; scaremongering about foreign extremists; cancelled environmental assessments; weakening environmental laws; axing and privatizing watchdogs; denying climate change; spying; smear campaigns; oil subsidies; declaring endangered species to be not endangered; human rights violations; drug war hysteria; forest decline; coverups of defective drugs; corporate access to government; global tar sand lobbying; retaliatory tax-audits against environmental groups; and disaster after disaster after disaster. Ladies and gentlemen, the Conservative Government of Canada.]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/the-tory-war-on-science-in-can.html/feed0The American science-denial playbookhttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/11/the-american-science-denial-pl.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/11/the-american-science-denial-pl.html#commentsSun, 11 Jan 2015 14:00:39 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=357559
Michael Mann, the author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines and creator of the "hockey-stick" climate-change graph used in An Inconvenient Truth, writes in the the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists about the uniquely American "witch-hunt" he and other climate scientists are subjected to.]]>
Michael Mann, the author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines and creator of the "hockey-stick" climate-change graph used in An Inconvenient Truth, writes in the the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists about the uniquely American "witch-hunt" he and other climate scientists are subjected to.

Is nearly all the rest of the world (excepting, perhaps, the UK and Australia, and the Canadian oilpatch), climate change is widely viewed as a settled question. As one climate scientist notes, "After my climate
change book came out, I had dinner with a Dutch minister from a right-wing, conservative party -- and he sounded like a Greenpeace guy."

II was subject to what The Washington Post and The New York Times denounced as an 'inquisition' and a 'witch hunt' by politicians in the pay of fossil fuel inter- ests (Mann, 2012), looking to discredit my work.

The former chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Texas Republican Joe Barton, attempted in 2005 to sub- poena all of my personal records and those of my two 'hockey stick' co-authors, even though the vast majority of what he was demanding was already in the public domain. (Among the fiercest critics of Barton's behavior were two powerful senior members of his own partyÑthe chair of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert of New York, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.)

Subsequently, Ken Cuccinelli, the newly minted attorney general of Virginia, who'd received significant Koch brothers support (see Blumenthal, 2013; Cramer, 2013; and Vogel, 2011), attempted to obtain all of my personal e-mails with more than 30 scientists around the world from the 1999 to 2005 time period, during which I was a professor at the University of Virginia, under the aegis of a civil subpoena designed to root out state Medi- care fraud. After Cuccinelli was repeat- edly rebuffed by the courts all the way to the state Supreme Court, a Koch-funded group called the American Tradition Institute (ATI) sought to demand the same e-mails through misuse of state open-records laws. The ATI too was rebuffed all the way to the state Supreme Court, which ultimately demanded that they pay both the University of Virginia and me damages for their frivolous peti- tioning of the court (Sturgis, 2014).

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/11/the-american-science-denial-pl.html/feed0Privatized offshore cities: the new climate apartheidhttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/05/privatized-offshore-cities-th.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/05/privatized-offshore-cities-th.html#commentsMon, 05 Jan 2015 17:00:18 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=356411
Financier-developers with ties to some of the century's most notorious war criminals are building Eko Atlantic, an offshore city near Lagos, to house the burgeoning, confiscatory millionaires of Nigeria, while in the oft-bulldozed slums of Lagos genuine, climate-resilient floating buildings are taking to sea.]]>
Financier-developers with ties to some of the century's most notorious war criminals are building Eko Atlantic, an offshore city near Lagos, to house the burgeoning, confiscatory millionaires of Nigeria, while in the oft-bulldozed slums of Lagos genuine, climate-resilient floating buildings are taking to sea.

Eko Atlantic is where you can begin to see a possible future – a vision of privatized green enclaves for the ultra rich ringed by slums lacking water or electricity, in which a surplus population scramble for depleting resources and shelter to fend off the coming floods and storms. Protected by guards, guns, and an insurmountable gully – real estate prices – the rich will shield themselves from the rising tides of poverty and a sea that is literally rising. A world in which the rich and powerful exploit the global ecological crisis to widen and entrench already extreme inequalities and seal themselves off from its impacts – this is climate apartheid.

Prepare for the elite, like never before, to use climate change to transform neighbourhoods, cities, even entire nations into heavily fortified islands. Already, around the world, from Afghanistan to Arizona, China to Cairo, and in mushrooming mega-cities much like Lagos, those able are moving to areas where they can live better and often more greenly – with better transport and renewable technologies, green buildings and ecological services. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the super-rich – ferried above the congested city by a fleet of hundreds of helicopters – have disembedded themselves from urban life, attempting to escape from a common fate.

In places like Eko Atlantic the escape, a moral and social secession of the rich from those in their country, will be complete. This essentially utopian drive – to consume rapaciously and endlessly and to reject any semblance of collective impulse and concern – is simply incompatible with human survival. But at the moment when we must confront an economy and ideology pushing the planet's life-support systems to breaking point, this is what the neoliberal imagination offers us: a grotesque monument to the ultra-rich flight from responsibility.

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/05/privatized-offshore-cities-th.html/feed0Watching the climate-cholera connection from orbithttp://boingboing.net/2014/12/17/the-climate-cholera-connection.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/12/17/the-climate-cholera-connection.html#commentsWed, 17 Dec 2014 13:55:46 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=353744Dr. Kiki Sanford on how scientists are predicting outbreaks from an unusual new vantage point.]]>Researchers reported at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, CA on a satellite-based cholera outbreak prediction model in which specific environmental factors are correlated with epidemic cholera outbreaks. That's right, scientists are predicting disease from space.

Cholera is a devastating diarrheal disease indicative of inadequate sanitation and health infrastructure. It is caused by a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae that exists naturally in the environment. That means we can't get rid of it. We are just unlucky that it affects us the way that it does, so we have to learn how to deal with it, which basically involves cleaning up water supply and infrastructure.

Cholera infects some 3-5 million people a year globally, but is really only a concern in developing countries where water sanitation is not sufficient to remove or kill the bacteria. The dehydrating effects of cholera lead to death in 20% of those infected, and are the result of toxins released by the organism once it begins to colonize the small intestine.The disease doesn't really spread person-to-person, but outbreaks result from a complex combination of hydrological, climate, and societal factors.

The organism can cause disease on an endemic and epidemic basis. In some regions of the world, usually coastal areas, it exists chronically in the population and environment with disease outbreaks occurring on a fairly regular basis. For example, in Bangladesh, the disease experiences a resurgence twice a year; once in the spring as a result of cholera-containing coastal waters intruding into the river system during the dry season when flows are low, and again in the fall after the monsoons when flooding causes contamination of water resources.

Epidemics, however, are much less predictable, occurring in a sudden, sporadic manner, and very often inland. Above average temperatures with above average precipitation combined with poor sanitation is the necessary pattern for epidemic outbreaks to get a start. In addition to the environmental parameters, any societal condition that devastates the water and community structure puts society at risk, but these are currently much more difficult to monitor.

The Indian sub-continent is where cholera is thought to have originated. But, it has been re-emerging in Africa over the past 10-15 years, especially in coastal Africa. So, researchers are using over 40 years of data to get an idea of its potential development in various African regions.

In India, 30 years of data show an increasing trend in both incidence and prevalence of the disease, which means that fatalities are down even as the number infected goes up. Prevalence doubled over the 30 year time period, and within just the past 10 years increased even faster. This is especially interesting as the past 10 years have been among the hottest on record. The models produced by the researchers based on the historical data and predicted hydroclimatic conditions suggest that by the 2050’s the entirety of central Africa will be at a substantially increased risk of epidemic cholera outbreaks. They didn't make any predictions for the Americas.

Rita Colwell, the lead researcher on this work, said over the phone that there is further environmental warming expected with projected climate change, and mentioned that in lab experiments with plankton, one of cholera's host species, increasing water temperatures leads to the production of larger numbers of infectious bacteria. Other experiments in the Gulf of Alaska have also revealed evidence that cholera concentration in water increases with increasing temperatures.

It's not a stretch to say that predictions of increased ocean warming and storms in areas of poor sanitation world-wide will lead to more frequent and intensive epidemics due to higher cholera numbers existing in the water. Yet, we have a chance of preventing these from terrible occurrences with predictive models like those described today. With enough lead time, health organizations will be able to distribute vaccines and oral rehydration treatments to areas before devastation takes place.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/12/17/the-climate-cholera-connection.html/feed0Youtube nukes 7 hours' worth of science symposium audio due to background music during lunch breakhttp://boingboing.net/2014/11/25/youtube-nukes-7-hours-worth.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/11/25/youtube-nukes-7-hours-worth.html#commentsTue, 25 Nov 2014 23:00:40 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=348327
Yannick writes, "We live-streamed our second annual Canadian conference of Citizens' Climate Lobby, a day of speeches, with a very interesting panel discussion."

http://boingboing.net/2014/11/25/youtube-nukes-7-hours-worth.html/feed0Handbook for fighting climate-denialismhttp://boingboing.net/2014/11/21/handbook-for-fighting-climate.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/11/21/handbook-for-fighting-climate.html#commentsSat, 22 Nov 2014 02:00:18 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=347536
From 2011, Skeptical Science's excellent Debunking Handbook, a short guide for having discussions about climate change denial that tries to signpost the common errors that advocates of the reality of anthropogenic global warming make when talking to people who disbelieve.]]>
From 2011, Skeptical Science's excellent Debunking Handbook, a short guide for having discussions about climate change denial that tries to signpost the common errors that advocates of the reality of anthropogenic global warming make when talking to people who disbelieve.

The Handbook explores the surprising fact that debunking myths can sometimes reinforce the myth in peoples' minds. Communicators need to be aware of the various backfire effects and how to avoid them, such as:

http://boingboing.net/2014/11/21/handbook-for-fighting-climate.html/feed0Leaked docs detail Big Oil and Big PR's plans for a opinion-manipulation platformhttp://boingboing.net/2014/11/20/leaked-docs-detail-big-oil-and.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/11/20/leaked-docs-detail-big-oil-and.html#commentsFri, 21 Nov 2014 02:00:58 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=347274
The leaked slides were prepared by Edelman, the largest PR company in the world, at the behest of Transcanada, and they constitute a blueprint for tracking and influencing platform that spies on its participants in order to psychologically profile them and nudge them into becoming advocates for the oil industry.]]>
The leaked slides were prepared by Edelman, the largest PR company in the world, at the behest of Transcanada, and they constitute a blueprint for tracking and influencing platform that spies on its participants in order to psychologically profile them and nudge them into becoming advocates for the oil industry.

Edelman's "Digital Grassroots Advocacy Implementation Plan" and "Grassroots Mobilization Program" are built around an action center called action.energyeastpipeline.com (this site is live now, and is run by Transcanada). The site rallies people who are sympathetic to the oil industry's cause -- construction workers who might get jobs on a pipeline, for example -- drawing them in with targeted search and social media ads, downplaying its relationship to the oil industry.

Then it uses a technology called "Multiplier" that runs on Salesforce's CRM software to profile and surveil these "citizen activists" and track whether they comply with the tasks it assigns them, "progressing" them into becoming "true champions" of oil pipelines.

This toolchain is not unique to Transcanada, either -- the slide-deck identifies "Companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and Haliburton" that have "made key investments in building permanent advocacy assets and programs to support their lobbying, outreach, and policy efforts."

Even those converted champions that perform up to Edelman’s standards would be tracked, too, however. “Every grassroots advocate record will be tagged and tracked based on how/where they were recruited, which message stream they responded to and how they perform over time," the report states. "These metrics will enable us both to tailor outbound communications to user preferences and to enhance future recruitment efforts.”

The world’s biggest PR company has, in other words, outlined, in great detail, how it anticipates targeting everyday citizens and convincing them to become pro-oil support troops, and how it intends to collect data on those aren’t quite ready to rally to the cause and how to push them over the edge. It is collecting a trove of data on citizens to better “convert” future supporters into “advocates,” even “champions.”

“We've never seen something with quite this level of depth before,” Floegal said. “We've got the whole playbook.”

But Edelman wants its converts on the cheap, too. That’s why it focuses its efforts online in the first place.

“Our key metric of success is the cost per acquisition (CPA) of a new grassroots advocate,” the May 20 document reads. “Historically, online acquisition techniques—including microtargeted online advertising, email list rental, newsletter inserts, social media advertising and direct partnerships (blogs, communities, aligned organizations)—have proven to be the most effective.”

http://boingboing.net/2014/11/20/leaked-docs-detail-big-oil-and.html/feed0Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming conference, Medford, Mass, Nov 21-23http://boingboing.net/2014/10/31/restoring-ecosystems-to-revers.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/10/31/restoring-ecosystems-to-revers.html#commentsFri, 31 Oct 2014 19:00:41 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=342240
Gmoke sez, "As someone who lives halfway between Harvard and MIT and has used that opportunity to monitor the scientists on climate change and energy, this is the first time I’ve seen anyone address these issues from the ecosystem perspective."

]]>
Gmoke sez, "As someone who lives halfway between Harvard and MIT and has used that opportunity to monitor the scientists on climate change and energy, this is the first time I’ve seen anyone address these issues from the ecosystem perspective."

Our Boston conference has a roster of world-class experts followed by an international series of events bringing together climate advocates, farmers, ranchers, scientists, social scientists, policymakers, NGOs, artists, visionaries and the general public – in other words, any and all of us – for a non-technical discussion to consider:

1.
The exceptional potential of the biosphere to address all of our current emissions, as well as to remove the 125 parts per million of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

2. Effective action on a global scale by applying eco-regenerative approaches to lands and waters worldwide.

3. The use of biological systems to re-establish healthy water cycles to cool the earth’s surface.

The theme of this year's 3-day conference is called Growing the Movement: The World We Want and How to Get There. The gathering will focus on practical solutions to the most urgent paradigm-shifting issues of the day.

* Eco-Futurist and best-selling science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson will be discussing his Eco-Futurist visions for surviving Climate Disruption.
* Famed mycologist Paul Stamets will be announcing major new breakthroughs in mushroom science research. Recall his earlier discoveries on the use of mushrooms for safe bio-remediation of Sarin Gas, Agent Orange and even petroleum in oil spills.

* The top leadership council of the Iroquois Nation, including Chief Oren Lyons, will be unveiling their new vertical urban agriculture business called Plantagon, using ancient First People's techniques. The revenue model for this business is being built to provide for the next Seven Generations to come, in keeping Native American tradition.

* Jeffrey Bronfman is giving a major talk about plant evolution and awareness and their uses in numerous spiritual and religious contexts (he won a famed battle at the US Supreme Court about same), followed by a talk by Australian evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano who will be speaking about plant intelligence.

http://boingboing.net/2014/10/10/inviting-all-eco-futurists-to.html/feed0This one U.S. hotspot produces the largest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane. Why?http://boingboing.net/2014/10/09/this-one-u-s-hotspot-produces.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/10/09/this-one-u-s-hotspot-produces.html#commentsThu, 09 Oct 2014 18:29:10 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=336976

A new study of satellite data by scientists at NASA and University of Michigan One shows that one small “hot spot” in the American Southwest produces the greatest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in the United States.

]]>

The Four Corners area (red) is the major U.S. hot spot for methane emissions in this map showing how much emissions varied from average background concentrations from 2003-2009 (dark colors are lower than average; lighter colors are higher).Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan

A new study of satellite data by scientists at NASA and University of Michigan One shows that one small “hot spot” in the American Southwest produces the greatest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in the United States.

According to lead study author Eric Kort of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the imaging predates the widespread use of fracking nearby. “This indicates the methane emissions should not be attributed to fracking but instead to leaks in natural gas production and processing equipment in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which is the most active coalbed methane production area in the country.”

The data shown by NASA satellites indicates that the levels of methane present there are more than triple the standard ground-based estimate.

Methane is very efficient at trapping heat in the atmosphere and, like carbon dioxide, it contributes to global warming. The hot spot, near the Four Corners intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, covers only about 2,500 square miles (6,500 square kilometers), or half the size of Connecticut.

In each of the seven years studied from 2003-2009, the area released about 0.59 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere. This is almost 3.5 times the estimate for the same area in the European Union’s widely used Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research.

In the study published online today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers used observations made by the European Space Agency’s Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument. SCIAMACHY measured greenhouse gases from 2002 to 2012. The atmospheric hot spot persisted throughout the study period. A ground station in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network, operated by the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, provided independent validation of the measurement.

To calculate the emissions rate that would be required to produce the observed concentration of methane in the air, the authors performed high-resolution regional simulations using a chemical transport model, which simulates how weather moves and changes airborne chemical compounds.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/10/09/this-one-u-s-hotspot-produces.html/feed020 meaningful things you can do about climate changehttp://boingboing.net/2014/10/08/20-meaningful-things-you-can-d.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/10/08/20-meaningful-things-you-can-d.html#commentsWed, 08 Oct 2014 13:00:28 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=336610
Michael sez, "As a volunteer climate change campaigner, over the years I've seen a number of lists of things people can do about climate change.]]>
Michael sez, "As a volunteer climate change campaigner, over the years I've seen a number of lists of things people can do about climate change. They're often unconvincing."

"Climate change is a problem of collective action, and most lists either focus on the reader as an isolated consumer and ignore questions of power, or are a bit vague ('Demand real action!')." This one by Patrick Robbins is a beauty, and also manages to be a tiny primer on climate justice, privilege, and the roles of empathy, emotion and collective action in how we mortals can shift the balance on climate issues."

6. After you’ve read about the crisis, let yourself feel grief. Don’t ignore your feelings, either through resignation or through forced optimism. Feel what you feel.

7. Talk about your feelings with your family and friends. Talk about what matters to you, about what the climate crisis threatens in your life. And when they are ready, talk with them about taking action. You will learn things that you didn’t know about your loved ones, and you will discover allies in unexpected places.

8. Find out if your local politicians have ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Call out any politician that participates in or is a member of groups designed to give corporations the power to write the law.

http://boingboing.net/2014/10/08/20-meaningful-things-you-can-d.html/feed0Urban living and carbon footprintshttp://boingboing.net/2014/09/23/urban-living-and-carbon-footpr.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/09/23/urban-living-and-carbon-footpr.html#commentsTue, 23 Sep 2014 13:00:55 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=333309
Patrick Nielsen Hayden uses an exceptionally silly Guardian op-ed about New York City as a "dangerous, intoxicating fantasy of freedom from nature" to extol big cities' environmental virtues: places where no one need own a car; where energy and resource reclamation and recirculation are common; where, in short, we all need to be.]]>
Patrick Nielsen Hayden uses an exceptionally silly Guardian op-ed about New York City as a "dangerous, intoxicating fantasy of freedom from nature" to extol big cities' environmental virtues: places where no one need own a car; where energy and resource reclamation and recirculation are common; where, in short, we all need to be.

In fact, logically, unless your “save the planet” dreams include the deaths of billions of people (which might well happen), the last thing we need to do is reject “the metropolis” in favor of “rustic aspirations.” What purveyors of the Jonathan Jones variety of handwringing pastoralism don’t get, and are very invested in not getting, is that the big, crowded, dirty, dense metropolis, the kind where people can actually live happily without owning a car, is in fact hugely better for the planet than the way most First Worlders live.

The average Vermonter burns 540 gallons of gasoline per year, and the average Manhattanite burns just 90.

8% of Americans don’t own a car. In Manhattan, it’s about 77%.

I’m sure that in his dim, sentimental “trees good, skyscrapers bad” way, Jonathan Jones means well. But if our children and our children’s children really do wind up in a world of apocalyptic climate change, “incompatible with human civilization”, then cliche-ridden, thought-free nonsense like what Jonathan Jones is selling will be a part—a small part, admittedly, but a part—of what gets us there.

http://boingboing.net/2014/09/23/urban-living-and-carbon-footpr.html/feed0Behind the scenes look at Canada's Harper government gagging scientistshttp://boingboing.net/2014/09/08/behind-the-scenes-look-at-cana.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/09/08/behind-the-scenes-look-at-cana.html#commentsTue, 09 Sep 2014 01:00:26 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=329915
Dave writes, "A request to interview a government scientist about his discoveries on 'Rock Snot' (algae) results in hundreds of e-mails, discussions of allowed talking points and, in the end, no approval for interview.]]>
Dave writes, "A request to interview a government scientist about his discoveries on 'Rock Snot' (algae) results in hundreds of e-mails, discussions of allowed talking points and, in the end, no approval for interview. Why? Perhaps because the source of the rock snot might be climate change?"

Not long before that Bothwell — described by the co-author of the article as “really the Yoda of knowledge about Didymo” — tried to hurry things along.

“I will search my computer for the approved responses from the last interview,” Bothwell wrote to a growing list of media handlers.

That unleashed a frenzy of emails trying to find the aforementioned “approved” responses. It appeared they were not located, and approval had to begin from scratch.

The emails refer to “agreed answers” for the scientist and “approved interview script” throughout.

“Can we prepare answers to these questions please,” Danny Kingsberry, acting manager of media relations, wrote. “I will get necessary approvals and we will schedule the interview after.”

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

The Canadian Press story about Bothwell’s breakthrough on the origins of this pervasive algae appeared on news sites and in newspapers across the country without Max Bothwell, a research scientist at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, B.C.

http://boingboing.net/2014/09/08/behind-the-scenes-look-at-cana.html/feed0Great stuff to see before it's obliterated by climate changehttp://boingboing.net/2014/09/03/great-stuff-to-see-before-it.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/09/03/great-stuff-to-see-before-it.html#commentsWed, 03 Sep 2014 13:55:11 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=328910
There's at least 33 things you should do, see and eat before climate change turns them into sad memories, from Kennedy Spaceport to Las Vegas to the Sydney Opera House.]]>
There's at least 33 things you should do, see and eat before climate change turns them into sad memories, from Kennedy Spaceport to Las Vegas to the Sydney Opera House.

Take, for instance, the ones found in your favorite cherry pie. Eighty percent of tart cherries come from a single five-county area in Michigan, all of which is threatened. So if the anti-climate change “Save the Cherry” campaign, which was launched in July at the National Cherry Festival, is a bust, look forward to later blossoms, unpredictable cherry harvests, and empty fruit stands, as happened in 2012, when an abnormal freeze-thaw cycle decimated the state’s crops.

http://boingboing.net/2014/09/03/great-stuff-to-see-before-it.html/feed0Burning Man rained out, closes gates on opening dayhttp://boingboing.net/2014/08/25/burning-man-rained-out-closes.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/08/25/burning-man-rained-out-closes.html#commentsTue, 26 Aug 2014 00:35:25 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=327004
Police turned people away from the Nevada festival in Black Rock desert, as rains reduced the playa to undrivable sludge; organizers warn it may be closed tomorrow, too.]]>
Police turned people away from the Nevada festival in Black Rock desert, as rains reduced the playa to undrivable sludge; organizers warn it may be closed tomorrow, too. Thousands of cars turned back for Reno, and nearby gas-stations ran dry.

The playa's mud is unbikable, undrivable, and barely walkable, after several hours of thunderstorm. Reno hotels are reportedly not gouging as they bulge at the seams with burners, which is swell and smart of them, given the importance of tens of thousands of burners to the local economy.

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/25/burning-man-rained-out-closes.html/feed0Canadian government caught secretly smearing scientist who published research on tar-sandshttp://boingboing.net/2014/08/21/canadian-government-caught-sec.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/08/21/canadian-government-caught-sec.html#commentsThu, 21 Aug 2014 19:00:47 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=326062
The Harper petro-Tory government's money comes from the people who got rich from the tar-sands, the dirtiest oil on the planet, and they've done everything they could to suppress science critical of Alberta crude; finally a scientist who wasn't under their thumb published his work and they started maneuvering behind the scenes to discredit him.]]>
The Harper petro-Tory government's money comes from the people who got rich from the tar-sands, the dirtiest oil on the planet, and they've done everything they could to suppress science critical of Alberta crude; finally a scientist who wasn't under their thumb published his work and they started maneuvering behind the scenes to discredit him.

Queen's University prof John Smol was shocked to read an internal Natural Resources Canada memo smearing his work and calling him biased -- the memo was released after an Access To Information Act request.

The study, jointly conducted by Smol’s lab and Environment Canada, found that levels of hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in six regional lakes ranged from 2.5 to 23 times greater than they were before oilsands development. The study was published in January 2013 in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences.

“I’m allowed to talk about my science, and everything I said was pre-read by my Environment Canada colleagues,” he said.

The memo to the Natural Resources minister was signed by deputy minister Serge Dupont, who was appointed to a post at the International Monetary Fund in Washington earlier this summer.

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/21/canadian-government-caught-sec.html/feed0Canadian government orders scientists not to disclose extent of polar meltinghttp://boingboing.net/2014/08/20/canadian-government-orders-sci.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/08/20/canadian-government-orders-sci.html#commentsWed, 20 Aug 2014 15:00:29 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=325828
Stephen Harper's petro-Tories have a well-earned reputation for suppressing inconvenient environmental science, but they attained new Stalinist lows when their ministers prohibited Canadian Ice Services from disclosing their government-funded research on the rapid loss of Arctic ice.]]>
Stephen Harper's petro-Tories have a well-earned reputation for suppressing inconvenient environmental science, but they attained new Stalinist lows when their ministers prohibited Canadian Ice Services from disclosing their government-funded research on the rapid loss of Arctic ice.

The CIS scientists had asked for permission to hold a "strictly factual" press briefing on the catastrophic loss of northern ice, for which they required nine levels of government approval; the sixth level -- ministerial offices -- vetoed it.

Ice on the northern pole isn't just a bellwether for warming and an important habitat -- the white polar ice increases the planet's albedo and reflects back much of the sun's heat.

Observers say the case is further evidence of the way the Conservative government is silencing scientists.

“It’s suppression through bureaucracy,” said Katie Gibbs, executive director of Evidence for Democracy (E4D), an Ottawa-based non-profit pushing for open communication of government science.

“Why is it that we need nine levels of approval for this sort of thing, what’s the justification,” said biologist Scott Findlay, a co-founder of E4D and member of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

He said the government’s “Byzantine message control” is not only wasting time, money and resources, but having a “corrosive” effect on the public service.

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/20/canadian-government-orders-sci.html/feed0Map: Which states' governors are climate deniers?http://boingboing.net/2014/07/02/map-which-states-governors.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/07/02/map-which-states-governors.html#commentsThu, 03 Jul 2014 00:35:17 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=315792
Thinking of moving and wondering whether your new state's chief executive is a climate-denier?
Thinkprogress's interactive map of the USA helps you find out which states are run by people like Florida's Rick Scott, who, in 2010, said "no...]]>
Thinking of moving and wondering whether your new state's chief executive is a climate-denier?
Thinkprogress's interactive map of the USA helps you find out which states are run by people like Florida's Rick Scott, who, in 2010, said "no... I have not been convinced" and has since dodged questions about anthropogenic climate change by saying "I'm not a scientist." (Governor Scott owns a $9.2M beachfront Naples mansion that's only 12 inches above sea level).

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/18/boob-and-sock-money-not-welcom.html/feed0Perot Science Museum missing tiny climate exhibit (but there's lots about fracking!)http://boingboing.net/2014/06/17/perot-science-museum-is-missin.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/17/perot-science-museum-is-missin.html#commentsTue, 17 Jun 2014 18:00:13 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=311832
The $185M Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas has a lot of positive info on the wonders of fracking, but a tiny panel explaining climate change in the original plans never made it into the joint.]]>
The $185M Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas has a lot of positive info on the wonders of fracking, but a tiny panel explaining climate change in the original plans never made it into the joint. In fact, none of the exhibits at the Perot mention climate change -- not the display on water, not the display on weather, and certainly not the display on the miracle of shale gas.

The hall where the climate change panel was meant to hang was endowed by American oil baron Trevor Rees-Jones and bears his name. A natural gas exec on the museum's board says that climate is "too complex and fast-changing to tackle in a permanent exhibit." And the Perot is not alone: as the Dallas Morning News points out, science museums all over the USA wrestle with how to present the overwhelming scientific consensus on issues like climate and evolution.

While international teams of scientists agreed long ago that human activity is the primary cause of current warming, members of the public and some politicians have been slow to embrace the findings.

“It is about the most politically controversial topic that we can take on right now,” said Paul Martin, senior vice president for science learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Some museums admit they’re reluctant to display the topic prominently. “We try to avoid saying things that are not necessary to be said,” said Carolyn Sumners, vice president for astronomy and the physical sciences at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

The museum doesn’t use the term “global warming” except in a historical context, such as the natural warming that took place during the time of the dinosaurs.

Visitors are just as unlikely to find overt references to evolution. “We don’t need people to come in here and reject us,” Sumners said. The museum does have an extensive display about human origins and human ancestors — a subtle approach that one might call “just the artifacts.”

Such displays are more likely to encourage museumgoers with set belief systems to linger long enough to learn something new, she said.

Louise Bradshaw, director of education at the St. Louis Zoo, who has given talks about navigating politically controversial subjects, said several museums use a similar tack. “Sometimes when you put the two words [global warming] together, it creates a flash point that gets distracting,” she said. “There are other ways to get there without picking a fight.”

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/17/perot-science-museum-is-missin.html/feed0Crowdscrounging pennies to support Canada's most important environmental researchhttp://boingboing.net/2014/06/04/crowdscrounging-pennies-to-sup.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/04/crowdscrounging-pennies-to-sup.html#commentsThu, 05 Jun 2014 02:00:36 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=308425
When Stephen Harper's petrotories yanked funding from the Experimental Lakes Area -- Canada's answer to the Large Hadron Collider, a captive ecosystem where some of the world's most important environmental research has been conducted -- the world gasped and raced to rescue it; now, scientists are reduced to scrounging for crowdfunding to continue some of the most important environmental research in the world.]]>

When Stephen Harper's petrotories yanked funding from the Experimental Lakes Area -- Canada's answer to the Large Hadron Collider, a captive ecosystem where some of the world's most important environmental research has been conducted -- the world gasped and raced to rescue it; now, scientists are reduced to scrounging for crowdfunding to continue some of the most important environmental research in the world.

John calls it "an amazing opportunity for all of us to fund incredibly important basic scientific research" -- it is, but it's also a blazing indictment of the year 2014, Canada, Stephen Harper, and hydrocarbons.

The Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) is a freshwater research facility in Northwestern Ontario, Canada that has operated as a government research program for over 45 years. After the Canadian Government announced that it would no longer fund the ELA program, operations were transferred to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in April 2014. IISD now needs additional funding to expand ELA’s vital legacy of research so that it can continue to find effective solutions to environmental problems affecting fresh water.

We can thank the ELA for many of the improvements we have seen in recent years to the quality of the water we use daily. ELA’s whole-lake research findings have been instrumental in the phase-out of harmful phosphorus additives in cleaning products, tightening air pollution standards in response to acid rain threats, and proposed installation of scrubbers inside industrial smokestacks to reduce mercury levels found in the fish we eat.

The ELA features a collection of 58 small lakes, as well as a facility with accommodations and laboratories. Since its establishment in 1968, ELA has become one of the world’s most influential freshwater research facilities. In part, this is because of the globally unique ability at ELA to undertake whole-ecosystem experiments.

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/04/crowdscrounging-pennies-to-sup.html/feed0Canadian scientists accuse govt of using junk science to prop up pipelinehttp://boingboing.net/2014/06/03/canadian-scientists-accuse-gov.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/03/canadian-scientists-accuse-gov.html#commentsTue, 03 Jun 2014 18:37:59 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=308128
Dave Ng sez, "The Canadian government is poised to once again abhor evidence-based decision making. 300 scientists have looked over the Joint Review Panel Report that is being used to push forward the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project have concluded that it 'has so many systemic errors and omissions, we can only consider it a failure.'"

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/03/canadian-scientists-accuse-gov.html/feed0Doubleclicks celebrate the paperback of Scatter, Adapt, and Remember with a new songhttp://boingboing.net/2014/04/08/doubleclicks-celebrate-the-pap.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/04/08/doubleclicks-celebrate-the-pap.html#commentsTue, 08 Apr 2014 13:00:42 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=296294
The paperback edition of Annalee Newitz's excellent Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction comes out today, and to celebrate, Annalee has commissioned a song about the book from nerd rockers the Doubleclicks.]]>

Scatter's premise is that the human race will face extinction-grade crises in the future, and that we can learn how to survive them by examining the strategies of species that successfully weathered previous extinction events, and cultures and tribes of humans that have managed to survive their own near-annihilation.

What follows from this is a whirlwind tour of geology, evolutionary biology, cultural anthropology and human history, as Newitz catalogs the terrifying disasters, catastrophes and genocides of geology and antiquity. From there, the book transitions into a sprightly whistle-stop tour of sustainable cities, synthetic biology, computer science, geoengineering, climate science, new materials science, urban theory, genomics, geopolitics, everything up to and including the Singularity, as Newitz lays out the technologies in our arsenal for adapting ourselves to upcoming disasters, and adapting our planet (and ultimately our solar system) to our long-term survival.

This has both the grand sweep and the fast pace of a classic OMNI theme issue, but one that's far more thoroughly grounded in real science, caveated where necessary. It's a refreshingly grand sweep for a popular science book, and if it only skims over some of its subjects, that's OK, because in the age of the Net, one need only signpost the subjects the reader might dive into on her own once she realizes their awesome potential.

This is a delight of a book, balanced on the knife-edge of disaster and delirious hope. It neither predicts our species' apotheosis nor its doom, but suggests paths to reach the former while avoiding the latter.

http://boingboing.net/2014/04/08/doubleclicks-celebrate-the-pap.html/feed0House Science Committee: a parliament of Creationists, Climate Deniers (and dunces)http://boingboing.net/2014/04/02/house-science-committee-a-par.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/04/02/house-science-committee-a-par.html#commentsThu, 03 Apr 2014 03:00:16 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=295813
Writing in Scientific American, Ashutosh Jogalekar bemoans the famously terrible state of the House Committee on Science, a farcical body stuffed with climate deniers and young Earth creationists.]]>
Writing in Scientific American, Ashutosh Jogalekar bemoans the famously terrible state of the House Committee on Science, a farcical body stuffed with climate deniers and young Earth creationists. At a recent hearing, committee member Randy Weber (R–TX) implied that science couldn't really make claims about things that happened tens of thousands or millions of years ago, because it couldn't directly observe them. It's a terrifying position for a legislator who sits in a position of power over national science policy to hold.

Jogalekar claims the committee is turning into a national embarrassment, but as Chris Baker points out, any notion of the committee changing over time is an Evolutionist lie from Satan, because the committee are exactly as God created them at the beginning of time, 6,321 years ago.

The farce continued with another Republican member trotting out the tired old examples of global cooling and dinosaurs:

“I remember in the ’70s, that [cooling] was the threat, the fear,” Posey recalled. Then he pivoted. “I’ve read that during the period of the dinosaurs, that the Earth’s temperature was 30° warmer. Does that seem fathomable to you?”

From the described exchange it seems that the members have zero interest in knowing the truth or understanding how science works. Sadly this rancor, ignorance and lack of respect for science and scientists is business as usual for Republican members of the House committee. After all, the subcommittee responsible for climate change is, quite appropriately enough, led by a climate change denier (this literally sounds like something out of Orwell). 17 out of 22 members of the larger committee either deny that climate change is happening or question that human activities are responsible for it; the chairman of the committee himself is skeptical about global warming. And of course, let’s not forget committee member Paul Broun who thinks evolution is a “lie from the pit of hell”.

No wonder that scientists like me find it refreshing when we hear about billionaires appreciating and funding basic research. Pretty much all politicians in this country seem to have lost respect not just for the findings of science but for the basic nature of the scientific method, but let’s be clear: one party disproportionately more than the other is holding science back. It’s a little surreal to see people like Weber, Broun and Smith on the science committee but such is the age we live in. Nonetheless, the prevarications, ignorance and feet-dragging in that party reflect poorly on the entire political establishment. When none other than the House Committee on Science is stacked with people who literally live in the Middle Ages in their ignorance of science, hearing a kind word about science coming from any direction is a breath of fresh air.

http://boingboing.net/2014/04/02/house-science-committee-a-par.html/feed0Tim Cook to climate deniers: get benthttp://boingboing.net/2014/03/01/tim-cook-to-climate-deniers-g.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/03/01/tim-cook-to-climate-deniers-g.html#commentsSun, 02 Mar 2014 01:00:38 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=290070go fuck himself: "If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock."
]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/03/01/tim-cook-to-climate-deniers-g.html/feed0$1B/year climate denial network exposedhttp://boingboing.net/2013/12/23/1byear-climate-denial-networ.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/12/23/1byear-climate-denial-networ.html#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 02:10:47 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=276025
In Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations, a scholarly article published in the current Climatic Change , Drexel University's Robert J.]]>
In Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations, a scholarly article published in the current Climatic Change , Drexel University's Robert J. Brulle documents a billion-dollar-per-year climate-change denial network, underwritten by conservative billionaires operating through obfuscating networks of companies aimed at obscuring the origin of the funds.

Among the recipients of the funds are several charitable groups that are supposedly neutral on climate change, including the American Enterprise Institute (the top recipient of the funds) and the Heritage Foundation. Brulle was unable to uncover the origin of 75 percent of the funds, much of which were routed through Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund.

The vast majority of the 91 groups on Brulle's list – 79% – were registered as charitable organisations and enjoyed considerable tax breaks. Those 91 groups included trade organisations, think tanks and campaign groups. The groups collectively received more than $7bn over the eight years of Brulle's study – or about $900m a year from 2003 to 2010. Conservative think tanks and advocacy groups occupied the core of that effort.

The funding was dispersed to top-tier conservative think tanks in Washington, such as the AEI and Heritage Foundation, which focus on a range of issues, as well as more obscure organisations such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the John Locke Foundation.

Funding also went to groups that took on climate change denial as a core mission – such as the Heartland Institute, which held regular conclaves dedicated to undermining the United Nations climate panel's reports, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which tried and failed to prosecute a climate scientist, Michael Mann, for academic fraud.

http://boingboing.net/2013/12/23/1byear-climate-denial-networ.html/feed0Rare "snonado" captured on Lake Superiorhttp://boingboing.net/2013/12/16/rare-snonado-captured-on-l.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/12/16/rare-snonado-captured-on-l.html#commentsMon, 16 Dec 2013 22:32:27 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=274362According to the Weather Channel, there are only six known photographs of winter waterspouts in existence. Then, last week, Jordan Detters captured a good minute and a half of video, showing winter waterspouts dancing along the waves of Lake Superior near Knife River, Minnesota.]]>

According to the Weather Channel, there are only six known photographs of winter waterspouts in existence. Then, last week, Jordan Detters captured a good minute and a half of video, showing winter waterspouts dancing along the waves of Lake Superior near Knife River, Minnesota.

While water spouts are relatively common in warm months, producing one in the winter requires a pretty specific set of meteorological circumstances, writes Minnesota Public Radio's chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. Thus, the dearth of images. In fact, for one to form at all you need a temperature difference between the water and the air of 19 degrees C.

Winter waterspouts occur when meteorological conditions are just right. You need a bitter arctic air mass passing over relatively warm lake water, and just enough light, low level wind shear to get the rapidly rising air currents spinning nicely.

Saturday’s contrast between bitter arctic air (air temp was about -7 degrees at Two Harbors nearby) and relatively warmer lake water (offshore surface water temps were around 40 degrees) create an “enhanced lapse rate” as temps cooled rapidly with height above the water. That produces rising air, and the lift needed to generate strong updrafts. Slight wind shear gets the air spinning, and small vortexes can form into waterspouts over the lake.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/12/16/rare-snonado-captured-on-l.html/feed0The climate of Middle Earthhttp://boingboing.net/2013/12/06/the-climate-of-middle-earth.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/12/06/the-climate-of-middle-earth.html#commentsFri, 06 Dec 2013 20:04:19 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=272838Mordor has an inhospitable climate, according to Radagast the Brown (aka climate scientist Dan Lunt) who created a climate model for Middle Earth based on geography as outlined by Tolkien and climate modeling software from our world.]]>Mordor has an inhospitable climate, according to Radagast the Brown (aka climate scientist Dan Lunt) who created a climate model for Middle Earth based on geography as outlined by Tolkien and climate modeling software from our world. ]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/12/06/the-climate-of-middle-earth.html/feed0How the TPP will gut environmental protectionhttp://boingboing.net/2013/12/03/how-the-tpp-will-gut-environme.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/12/03/how-the-tpp-will-gut-environme.html#commentsTue, 03 Dec 2013 19:11:38 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=271921
I've posted a bunch about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a shadowy, secretive trade deal that will have a disastrous effect on the Internet, privacy and free speech, thanks to the brutal copyright provisions the US Trade Rep has crammed into it.]]>
I've posted a bunch about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a shadowy, secretive trade deal that will have a disastrous effect on the Internet, privacy and free speech, thanks to the brutal copyright provisions the US Trade Rep has crammed into it. But that's not the whole story.

Michael sez, "You might be interested to know the TPP looks terrible for environmental protection too, due to a proposed mechanism called 'investor-state arbitration'. Basically this'd allow investors to sue countries for passing legislation detrimental to the financial interests of those investors. Yep, think environmental protections, workers' rights laws and any other kind of public protection that might reduce a profit margin.

The international climate change group 350.org is starting a new campaign against the TPP on these grounds; there's a petition and links to further information at the link. The more fronts we expose and fight this thing on the better: the TPP will reduce the power of civil society in all kinds of ways and we shouldn't let it happen.

http://boingboing.net/2013/12/03/how-the-tpp-will-gut-environme.html/feed0Muzzling Canadian scientists: Comparing US and Canadian routine scientific secrecyhttp://boingboing.net/2013/11/09/muzzling-canadian-scientists.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/11/09/muzzling-canadian-scientists.html#commentsSun, 10 Nov 2013 02:14:24 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=267300
Canada's Conservative government has become notorious for muzzling government scientists, requiring them to speak through political minders (often callow twentysomethings with no science background who received government jobs in exchange for their work on election campaigns).]]>
Canada's Conservative government has become notorious for muzzling government scientists, requiring them to speak through political minders (often callow twentysomethings with no science background who received government jobs in exchange for their work on election campaigns). Government scientists are not allowed to speak to the press alone no matter how trivial the subject, and the default position when reporters seek interviews is to turn them down. (Much of Canada's state-funded science pertains to the climate and the environment; Canada's Tories were elected with strong backing from the dirty tar sands and other polluting industries)

A group of University of British Columbia students decided to measure just how extraordinarily secretive science has become in Stephen Harper's Canada. Dave Ng writes:

What if there was a non-political research project that involved a collaboration between NASA scientists and Environment Canada scientists? How easy would it be for a journalist to talk to the scientists involved? It turns out it would take only 15 minutes for something to be arranged with NASA. With Environment Canada, however, it would take the activities of 11 media relations people, sending over 50 pages of internal emails, before a list of irrelevant information was finally sent back - all of this long after the deadline had passed. This is what happened to journalist Tom Spears in April 2012. With this, this Terry Podcast episode asks a simple question: If it was this difficult to get interviews for a positive science story, what would happen if a journalist needed to actually ask some tough questions? Please take a listen as this episode of the Terry Podcast examines the relationship between media and Canadian Government scientists, and questions whether the Harper government has politicized science.